


away, away

by kyurem



Category: Persona 3
Genre: (kinda), Canonical Character Death, F/M, Memory Loss, Time Loop, also implied minako/shinjiro, i still have no idea what i'm doing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-15
Updated: 2015-09-15
Packaged: 2018-04-20 22:23:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4804406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyurem/pseuds/kyurem
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something isn't right here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	away, away

**Author's Note:**

> based on that one headcanon that when one arisato sibling goes to be the seal, the other goes back in time to relive the year. it would have been longer but, once again, i got lazy. i'll break 2,000 words someday...
> 
> also centered around yukari because i'm predictable and biased. does the fandom hate me yet

**...**

"Who's there!?"

Yukari's sharp call is met with silence, but she can see the dark outline of - _something_ , she can't make out what lines belong to it and what lines belong to the background but something's _there_. Her hand dances over her Evoker because Io is murmuring and she only ever does that when she senses a Shadow, and even then it's only a whisper. But she's murmuring and so it must be something so much more sinister -

"Takeba, wait!"

The lights flicker back on and there's no Shadow, no horrible monster, nothing otherworldly in nature. There's just a boy with navy hair and silver eyes that pierce through her like arrows. Io was wrong, and she quickly stuffs the Evoker under her cardigan where he can't see it.

Mitsuru says that his name is Minato and he'll be moving into the dorm and she doesn't know why, but looking at him is giving her a migraine. Or maybe that's just guilt because she nearly tried to kill the guy. Still, she is nice and polite and leads him up to his room, and only when he closes the door does Io quiet.

**...**

They have nothing in common except for SEES, abandonment and loss - and those aren't exactly topics to discuss over dinner - so they dance around each other in a silent, complicated game for a majority of the year until that night in Yakushima when she storms off to the beach. She gets mad at him, too, for following her and being so calm about it - about _everything_ , actually - but it's unreasonable and they both know it, so maybe that's why he -

Io laughs, fluttery and lilting like a butterfly's wings.

**...**

Then she falls in love, the kind of fall that breaks bones and hearts and that you don't ever recover from.

(It's pure luck, then, or perhaps fate, that has her confession met with a smile.)

On one particular day where they spent a great deal of the afternoon in her room cuddling under pink and cream sheets (her worrying about January 31st and him telling her that _it'll be all right, we can do this_ ), Minato leaves his headphones on her desk, and she sticks them in one of the drawers with a mental note to give them back later.

**...**

She never gets to because she forgets and doesn't remember, and it's too late and she's too late but she falls to her knees next to his motionless body anyways and takes his hand, promising that she won't ever forget him and everything that he's done for her, and then the world blurs -

**...**

"Who's there!?"

Yukari's sharp call is met with silence, but she can see the dark outline of - _something_ , she can't make out what lines belong to it and what lines belong to the background but something's _there_. And - and she's got a nagging suspicion that it's not what she thinks it is, but her hand dances over her Evoker anyways because Io is murmuring and she only ever does that when she senses a Shadow, and even then it's only a whisper. But she's murmuring and so it must be something so much more sinister (but is it, really?) -

"Takeba, wait!"

The lights flicker back on and there's no Shadow, no horrible monster, nothing otherworldly in nature. There's just a girl with brown hair and red eyes that burn bright like a blazing inferno -

No. No, that's not right. But it has to be, because she's looking right at her. And what's that supposed to mean, anyways? Yukari hesitates before quickly stuffing the Evoker under her cardigan where the girl can't see it, but she has a feeling that it doesn't matter because the girl _knows_.

Mitsuru says that her name is Minako and she'll be moving into the dorm and she doesn't know why, but looking at her is giving her a migraine. Or maybe that's just guilt, or the fact that this all seems wrong, wrong, wrong. Still, she is nice and polite and leads her up to her room, and only when she closes the door does Io quiet.

(Maybe if she does this again, he'll be able to come back.)

(...Wait, what?)

**...**

The whole year plays out - the twelve Shadows, Ikutsuki's betrayal, Strega, Ryoji, The Fall, and what it all leads up to in the end - and while it all comes as a surprise, the bigger surprise is that she feels like she's seen it all before. Like she's already been through all of this.

But that can't be possible.

Yukari doesn't know why she gets a lump in her throat every time she looks at Minako, or why her chest aches every time she sees her with Shinjiro, or why when she arrives on the rooftop (again?) and sees her lifeless body (again?), she drops to her knees and weeps as if she's lost something more than her other half - like a lover (again?) -

But that can't be possible.

**...**

A few days after Minako's funeral, Yukari is in her room emptying out her desk drawers when she happens upon a pair of silver headphones, similar in model to the ones Minako always wore. She frowns and picks them up, dangling them from the wire.

_Forgot to return these to Minato -_

Then she blinks.

_...Who?_

**...**

"Minato?"

Yukari's uncertain call is met with silence, but she can see the dark outline of - _something_ , and even though it's dark she can somehow sense that there's a person there. She surprises herself with the foreign (is it really?) name that falls from her lips, but it comes out on its own and it doesn't sound wrong. Io is murmuring, but she keeps her hand away from the Evoker and takes a couple of tentative steps forward because she knows that this person isn't hostile, she just _does_.

"Takeba, wait!"

The lights flicker back on and there's no Shadow, no horrible monster, nothing otherworldly in nature. There's just a boy with navy hair and silver eyes and everything clicks because it's _him_.

He looks at her with his mouth partially open, maybe on the brink of a _How do you know my name?_ , but what falls out instead is a halting, "Yukari?" Her heart bursts through the roof and soars into the green-tinged sky when he says her name again, this time with a bit more certainty and what looks to be the beginnings of a smile.

The headphones aren't around his neck anymore and she finds herself digging in the pocket of her skirt and, ignoring Mitsuru's perplexed stare, extending them to him with a smile of her own.

"I think these are yours."


End file.
